Civilization Wii development halted
Bad news for Civilization fans who were hoping to play it on Wii. For the time being at least, development has been halted. Scott Lewis, a programmer at Firaxis spoke:
"Civilization Revolution was originally a 360/PS3 project and was in development for over a year before the Wii/DS platforms were added, largely because we saw the success of those platforms and a lot of people (including myself) were very excited about them. All of our assets were originally created with the 360/PS3 in mind. In order to bring the assets to the Wii, a great deal of work would have to go into making them look appropriate on the Nintendo system. If we had started the project with all four platforms in mind, it is far more likely that we would not have put the Wii version on hold".
"We're using every button on the 360/PS3 controllers and are working very hard to make the player's experience as accessible and usable as possible with those. The Wii version came along very late and we think that the audience would not be happy with a simple mapping of the 360/PS3 controls. I think the Wii would be perfect for a game like this, but we'd have to throw out all of our interface work (and some of our game design decisions) to make it feel like it truly fits on the platform".
"The simple truth is that we had too many projects going on and not enough people. When we were stretched for resources and time, of the platforms we were working on, the Wii version had the most question marks, so it got put on hold. If the 360/PS3/DS versions do well, obviously a Wii version will be more likely".
It's a shame, but it sounds like they're doing the right thing under the circumstances. A Wii version of Civilization would deserve more than clumsy tacked-on controls. Here's hoping the project gets resumed further down the line.
Posts
Step
NOOOOOO! :'( *whimper*. Guess I won't have to share the Wii with the wife for that game anyways.
Jonny
CUUUURSES, CURSES! I was REALLY looking forward to this. They better not cancel it.
Wiipaw
I REALLY don't think they would cancel this. I mean, one is coming out for ds.
MaxyDawg
They won't cancel, but the game WOULD suck if the controls were just tacked on. The game will actually be better this way.
The Hamburgler
Arg! He's saying that it's only halted, but the tone makes me feel it's been scrapped for good. This sucks.
Jskrdude
Well, I can live with the wait (though I probably will never actually buy this) if they add online capabilities.
wii addict
Ehh never liked it. Now if they make command and conquer for the Wii then I'll be happy.
Sonic Phantom
Ok. I wasn't interested anyways.
Ganon
Thank god someone's putting effort in Wii ports. Even if it means putting it on hold. But that's only to make it better.